Chit Chat Through Silence
by Death by Fallen Star
Summary: Dwayne hates school. Ginny just moved to town. They have two classes together. Eh, what could happen? Dwayne&OC
1. Most Conversations

**Disclaimer: **I dis this claim.

**Chit-Chat in Silence**

**Chapter 1: **_"Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness." -Margaret Millar_

He _hated _school. There were no if, and, or buts about it: he _hated_ school. Almost as much as he hated his home life, but that one always trumped over anything in its comparison.

Still though, he did hate school. Every aspect about it. The students, teachers, classes, hallways, lunches, lockers, ceilings, walls, everything. It was all stupid and pointless. And he was stuck here until his mom and step-parent got on the move and let him attend flight school.

He was pretty sure school hated him back. All of the students thought he was acting "stuck up" for not talking, and the teachers treated him like he was stupid. He wasn't stupid. He got straight A's, finished his work, all that bullshit. He just wanted the _fuck_ out of here.

Out of all the classes, he hated biology the least. In that class, he got a table all the way in the back, all to himself, no one bugged him, and he was permitted to work with his hands. He still hated it though. People looked at him and snickered, the teacher gave that disapproving look when he asked a question and received a notebook in face with the answer. (He didn't ask questions often though).

The teacher, Mr. Ling, wasn't asking Dwayne questions today, thank gawd. Dwayne was down to his last three pieces of paper in his notepad, and left his spare one at home. He was expecting a sub in his last class, so he would probably need the paper for then. He really hated this fucking school.

They were going over simple crap today. Mitosis and meiosis. Mr. Ling kept hinting that a big project was coming up. Whatever. It's not like the silent boy needed to worry about a partner or any of that bullshit.

"Now, in anaphase one-" Mr. Ling's lecture abruptly stopped with the opening of the door. Dwayne looked up uncaringly from his notes and doodles. He stared at the wooden door as the vice-principal(or bitchipal, as he preferred) entered. She held the door open and in followed a girl.

He didn't really look at her. She looks plain. Blonde hair, tan skin. Yay, another Cali-Girl.

The "educators" talk and the girl stares around the room, swaying. She looks hippie-ish. Long skirt and sleeves and hair and all. Yay, another peace lover.

The vice-bitchipal leaves and the girl keeps standing there. Dwayne suddenly realizes _why _she's there. She's probably a new student. New student, means that the only available seat in class will be taken by her. The only available seat, being next to him. Dammit.

"Everyone, this is Virginia Mars, she just moved here from Juno, Alaska." She smiles hugely at everyone.

_She must dye her hair_, is the first thing he thinks.

"I go by Ginny," she tells Mr. Ling, then looks at the class like she hopes they understand.

"Okay, well Ginny, you will be sitting," Mr. Ling pauses and looks around the room, as if hoping another spot that isn't beside the "freaky emo kid" has appeared for the new girl.

Nope. No random seats materialize. Dwayne is screwed.

"You'll be sitting by Dwayne, in back there." He looks like he's inwardly wincing, and the fact that Dwayne is causing such a turmoil nearly makes him smile. He doesn't though, he keeps his composure.

"Okay," Ginny says and practically skips to the stool next to Dwayne. He doesn't look at her as she sits down and rumbles through her backpack and pulls out some paper and a pencil. "Hi," she whispers.

He doesn't consider himself to be too rude, so he nods in response before tapping his pencil on the desk a few times.

She pauses for a moment, and he realizes she looking at him, waiting for a reply. Well, she won't get one. He is going to stay true to his vow of silence no one was going to make him break that even for the smallest of reasons.

She stops staring and goes back to getting school ready things out of her bag. He goes back to doodling planes and circles.

Mr. Ling talks to Ginny for a few minutes about what she's gone over and if she's at where there at and all that bullshit. From what Dwayne caught pieces of, she's behind.

"I'll be right back class, stay quiet," Mr. Ling suddenly says and walks out of the room.

Dwayne's the only one who follows the directions, even Ginny feels compelled to break the silence request.

"Hi, so you're Dwayne?" she asks nicely.

He nods.

"Do you like this class?"

He shrugs.

"Are you in tenth grade?"

He nods.

"Not very talkative, huh?" She giggles.

Sighing, Dwayne pulls out his worn red notepad from his back pocket. He flips to the third to last page and scribbles on the paper, and then pushes it to her.

She reads the words aloud. "'_Vow of silence_'." She pauses, blinking at the paper. "Oh, for what?" She hands the notepad back to him.

He sighs again, and writes again.

Again, she reads the words, " '_Air force academy. Parents won't let me go.'_" She pauses again, as if she has to take a minute register the words meanings. "Oh, okay. That's cool. How long since you talked?"

She's really chatty. He jots down '_4 months_' and her eyes widen.

"Whoazus." The word makes Dwayne's brain spark. "Whoazus"? What kind of word was that? "I'd never be able to hold up that long. Props to you though, that must be rough." She slides his paper back to him, as if she hopes for a written reply.

He just shrugs.

"You shouldn't even bother talking to _him_," a voice that's way to nasally to be authentic reaches their table, and Ginny and Dwayne look to the voices owner. "He's emo and silent-y, so don't bother." Dwayne doesn't know who the hell this girl is, but she apparently knows a lot about him.

"Well, actually he was just-" She holds the paper up and Ms. Nasal Voice interrupts.

"Oh yeah. His little 'communication' slip. Freak." She scoffs at Dwayne, and he's tempted to flip her off, but she turns away from him to quickly and looks at Ginny. "_So_. _You're _from, like, Alaska? That's cool. Was it, like, really cold and stuff?"

Ginny is quick to reply, "Oh yeah, it's always freezing. You have to wear hundreds of layers just to go check the mail."

Dwayne's pencil stops from the drawings he resumed. It wasn't _that_ cold. Surely she knew that.

"Oh _wow_," Ms. Nasal says in an awestruck voice. "That's terrible."

"Yeah, I was able to survive and not lose any of my toes, but there were a lot of kids at my old school who had lost a _bunch_ of their toes." Ginny goes on, sounding completely honest.

Seriously, there's no way it was _that_ cold.

"Oh my gawd, that's terrible!" Ms. Nasal says, devastated, or faking it more likely.

"Yeah, haven't you heard of the Juno Research Foundation? It's all for figuring out how to give kids new toes."

What the _hell?_

"Oh yeah! I think my dad went to one of the fundraisers last spring! He donated, like, five-hundred dollars." Dwayne looks up and see her smiling proudly at everyone who's eavesdropping. Which is everyone.

"Oh wow, that's so nice of him," Ginny replies, and Dwayne catches it. It being the smallest hint of sarcasm.

He gets it; she's _joking_. She's trying to see how stupid everyone is and making up a load of bullshit in the process.

Damn, she's good.

"What about, like, mooses?" asks a girl from a table in front of them. "Did you, like, see them?"

"Uh-huh. All the time. They just wander the streets and sometimes have stampedes through the villages."

Everyone gasps dramatically.

"Did you, like, ever see them, like, _hunt_?" ask a different dumb person.

Ginny still doesn't hesitate. "Yeah, I saw them eating a bunch of baby penguins one time. It was really dramatic. I still have nightmares." She shakes her head and looks away, but Dwayne catches her out of character and sees a laugh on her face.

Everyone mutters things like: "You poor thing," or "Those poor penguins," or other stupid shit, until Mr. Ling walks back in.

Once he starts talking about all of the meiosis phases again, Dwayne reaches for his still open notepad and writes at the bottom of the page: _Good one._

He pushes it towards her and she reads it. She smiles widely, then whispers, "Thanks." And that's that.

…**..**


	2. Talking Much About Oneself

**Chit-Chat Through Silence**

**Chapter 2**: "Talking much about oneself can also be a means to conceal oneself." - **Friedrich Nietzsche**

Within the next week of school, Dwayne realizes he has a total of two classes with Ginny. He only notices because she sits by him in both classes. The first one being second period English and the other being third period biology.

She chats with him in both classes, and Dwayne for some reason can't work up the nerve to write "_Leave me alone_". He figures she'll get a few friends who aren't as stupid as biology class and then forget about him completely.

So, for now he nods and shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders and writes when absolutely necessary. She's started to ask him things that just need 'yes' or 'no' replies, so he doesn't have to write often. He does have to listen though, and that's still very annoying since she can go on and on about anything; and she'll throw in words that he _knows_ doesn't exist. Like "whoazus" and "flibberjack" and "fanmasical". It was really fucking annoying.

She's his legit-shit exact opposite. Chatty and energetic.

Because she's chatty and energetic though, he doesn't understand why she doesn't have any friends to go and tell all of her stories to. By Friday, he wonders if she does, but feels bad for him and talks to him anyways because she assumes he's "lonely".

She skips(literally this time) into English and goes to her seat next to him in the back. She takes off her backpack(which he's now recognized is a red book bag that has random things wrote on it). She pulls out a pencil and looks at him, obviously all-to-ready to start a conversation.

"Hi, how are you?" she asks as she always does.

Like always, he shrugs.

"You know," she starts and he looks out the window, already tired. "My dad's in the marines."

His head turns to her and he looks at her, hoping she hears his silent "_Really?_" This conversation might actually be interesting.

She hears his silent remark and nods. "Mhmmmm. That's why we moved here, we get stationed in random places all the time. I'm not sure why, but hey, you gotta take what you're given." She shrugs. "But yeah, I remembered that you said you wanted to be in the air force, right?"

He nods.

"Huge difference between the marines and air force, but maybe you'd still wanna talk to my dad- or, write technically. He could probably help convince you're parents to letting you get into school."

Dwayne stares at her. He suddenly sees that one of her eyes are green, and the other is blue. She's a heterochromatic. Huh.

He takes out his new notepad and writes: '_Don't you have real friends?'_

She reads it, and pauses. She doesn't talk for a long time, just stares at the paper, and Dwayne fears she's going to go and cry and weep and shit.

She puts the pad down and takes her pencil. He feels a boil of anger rise up in him. No one _else_ is suppose to write in _his_ notepad. No one….

She slides it over to him, and then pulls out a book. He looks at her for a second, then down at the notepad.

_Sorry._

…


	3. A Story is Told

_**Chit-Chat Through Silence**_

_**Chapter 3:**_

"_A story is told as much by silence as by speech." _– Susan Griffin

Ginny doesn't really talk to him now. Only when absolutely necessary ("Can I borrow last week's notes?", "Do you have a pencil sharpener?", etc); and he nods and shakes his head and shrugs his shoulders and writes when absolutely necessary.

He keeps thinking she's going to make friends with _someone_, but he starts to notice she doesn't. She doesn't talk to anyone else unless absolutely necessary. What? Was she socially retarded and could only find a way to talk to the kid who didn't talk back?

He feels that small rise guilt that his more human self insist on having. The guilt finally talks him into pulling out his notepad and writing on it and sliding it to her during biology.

She stares at the five letters for a minute, then pushes the pad of paper back towards him. "It's all right," she mutters.

He looks at her, then back down at his notes, and sighs inwardly. Damn his more human self. He writes again, and taps on the paper when he pushes it to her again.

She raises an eyebrow after reading it and whispers, "Lunch? Really?"

He nods.

"Why?"

He scribbles down three words and she giggles quietly.

"Yeah, you have. Yeah, I guess I'll eat lunch with you. We can meet out in the courtyard if you want."

He nods, and takes back his paper.

And now he's gotten himself into a load of shit.

**!&!**

He sits down under a tree in the courtyard. It's not that big and the shade doesn't even cover his feet, but he manages. He doesn't know why he offered to meet with Ginny at lunch. Damn conscious. Fuck his conscious.

She walks over to him with a full tray of food. He glances down at his apple and water and briefly wonders if he should have tried the chili dogs they were serving today. He then realizes that's the worse thought he's had since he offered to sit at lunch with Ginny.

She sits down in front of him, the sun pouring all over her and into her eyes. "Hi!" she says cheerily. "How are you?"

He shrugs.

"I figured." She shrugs herself and takes a bit of the chili dog on her tray that looks ready to come to life and eat him. School food is gross.

She takes a few minutes to chew and swallow, and then tells, "The food here is better then at my old school. In Juno, they serve fish all the time, and it's always the exact same way. Yuck." She pauses and looks at him, taking a bit of his apple. "Do you like fish?"

He nods.

"I thought so. You seem like you would like all of that healthy stuff."

He shrugs.

She stares at him. "Do you have any siblings?"

He nods.

"Do you have… a sister?" She's being good about asking questions that only require a movement of the head.

He nods.

"Is she older?

He shakes his head.

"Younger?"

He nods.

"Hm. That's cool. I'm an only child. Guess that's a good thing, being an army brat and all. How old is she?"

He holds up seven fingers.

"Oh, that's cute. Do you guys get along?"

He nods.

"How does she feel about you not talking?" She winces, as if realizing this isn't a "yes" or "no" question.

He just shrugs.

"Hm." She stares at him for a minute, then goes to eating her food and talking.

He eats his apple, listening and answering. She asks him a lot of questions, which is kind of strange to him, since usually girls just go on and on and most anyone can get by with is just pretending to listen. But he has to actually listen, because she'll ask a question at the most random moments when she's talking, and she excepts an answer in some way from him.

He finds out her parents are happily married and that she has a dog. That's the most he remembers.

The bell to end lunch rings and she stands up. "Well this was fun," she tells.

He stands up and realizes she's smiling at him. He doesn't know how to react to the gesture, so he just nods, dropping his apple core to the ground.

"I'll see you in English tomorrow," she states, then skips off. He watches after her, unsure of how to react.


	4. The Way To Get Started

**Chapter 4:**

"_The way to get started is to stop talking and start doing._" – Walt Disney

He did see her in English and biology and lunch the next day. And the day after that, and the day after that for two weeks. In those two weeks, she had talked to him and asked him more questions more than his own family ever had. It was weird to him, but he didn't know how to _not _answer her. He was already not talking, what else could he do that wouldn't make his conscious worry?

So, he answered each question by nodding and shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders and writing when absolutely necessary.

She was really good about asking just yes or no questions though. It was always entertaining to see her try and word a question in a way he could just use movements. He guessed she didn't want him wasting to much paper on her.

They were in biology one day, waiting for class to start. Dwayne was laying his head on the table, tired; and Ginny was holding her head up with her hands and asking questions and telling stories.

"Do you like the colour green?" she asks, not looking at him.

He lifts his head just barely and shakes it.

She still doesn't look at him, but somehow knows what he's done and says, "Yeah, I figured. You probably just like black and white right?"

He nods, his head still on the table.

"Yeah. I like green. I like black to though. I actually like them together. They mix really good. Well, not mix per say. More like they can be put together separately and make a good combination. Hm." She bites her lip and finally looks at him. "Do you like milkshakes?"

He grabs his pencil and writes form a sideways view: _Sometimes._

"Hm." She looks at the paper. "Do you like them when it's hot out?"

He underlines the word.

"Oh, okay. It's a mood thing, not a weather thing, right?"

He nods.

"That makes sense." She nods, agreeing with herself.

Mr. Ling finally walks into class and Dwayne sits straight up. "Hello class, and how are we today?"

People mutter random things and Dwayne pops his back.

"Well, today you guys are getting you're big class projects!" he tries to sound enthusiastic, for the classes sake, but everyone still groans in response. "Now, now, it's no that bad. You'll get your table partner and you will build something that's biology related. You have to have a 3D diagram, a report, and one of you will have to speak about your project in front of the class. Now, I'll give everyone this time to talk with your partners and ask questions. This is the only day I will give you in class to work on it. Now get started."

Ginny turns to face him, he turns to face her.

"So…" she says.

He draws a box around the "s" and "o" in _sometimes._

She giggles. "Yeah, well what do you want to do?"

He shrugs.

"We could, build a cell?"

He shrugs.

"Or a DNA strand?"

He shrugs.

"Or a unicorn?"

He raises an eyebrow.

She smiles brightly. "Just making sure you're listening. But you have to give some input. This isn't just the Ginny Project. It's the Ginny and Dwayne Project. Or Dwayne and Ginny. Hm…. I like Ginny and Dwayne better, not because I come first, but because it flows better, don't you think?"

He pauses, then nods. He really doesn't care.

"So, what do you want to do?"

He shrugs.

"Come on, work with me please," she begs.

He sighs and writes on a different piece of paper.

She reads out loud: "_'Everyone will do a cell or DNA._'" She ponders for a moment, letting the words sink in. "Yeah, you're right. Wellerz…." She starts thinking again. He does to, just not as intensely as she does.

It's quiet(something rare with her) for a few minutes. The only people talking are the other students and the teacher. He glances over at her, and only has view of her green eye. It's staring at the ceiling, but not really looking at it. Kind of like it's seeing past the ceiling and to somewhere else.

"I got it!" Ginny says suddenly, and Dwayne looks away from her, startled. "We can do a food chain!" She pauses, as if waiting for applause.

He just looks at her.

"You know: a _food chain_? With animals and stuff! We could build one with some little toys and things!" She seems way too excited by this.

Still, Dwayne can't help but think it sounds like a pretty good idea. Plus easy and original, which will probably give them some extra points.

He takes his paper and writes two letter.

She smiles wide after reading them and says, "Great! So that's all set in motion. Now, when and where do you want to meet up?"

He shrugs.

"Well, how about today after school?"

He shrugs.

"I will take that as a yes. Want to go to…. Your house?"

He hesitates. Does he really want to expose anyone to the hell that is his home? Richard would probably be home today taking care of Olive and working on his "nine shits". His mom would be off work before they finished, and then she would probably be all… mom-ish. And then there'll probably be arguing. Lots of arguing. And shitty chicken for dinner.

"Dwayne?" she asks. "Can we go to your house?"

He nods.


	5. A Face

**Chapter 5:**

"_A face is like the outside of a house, and most faces, like most houses, give us an idea of what we can expect to find inside." – _Loretta Young

He meets her in front of the school. Ginny's standing on the sidewalk, searching the crowd and biting her thumb. He walks up to her and waves shortly.

She smiles. "Hi! Ready to go?" she asks.

He nods.

"Kay, lead the way." She moves aside and he walks down the sidewalk with her in quick tow. "Is your house far away?" she asks.

He shakes his head.

"Are we going to walk the whole way?"

He shakes his head.

"Are we taking a bus?"

He nods.

"Okay. I walk home. It's not that far from here. Oh, when we get to your house, can I use your phone and call my parents?"

He nods.

"Thanks. My mom and dad don't usually notice if I'm gone, but I figure it's only polite to call. Do you ever answer the phone?"

He shakes his head.

"I figured. But you said your parents divorced right?"

He nods.

"What if your dad calls?"

He takes out his notepad and stops walking. He writes something down and Ginny waits.

He shoves the pad in her face and she reads out: "'_He doesn't._'" She blinks and he drops his hand. "Oh, sorry."

He shrugs. They start walking again.

"So you haven't talked to your dad at all since you stopped speaking?"

He nods.

"Does he know?"

He nods.

"Your mom told him?"

He nods.

"How does he feel about it?"

He stops and takes the paper out again, and writes under his previous answer.

She reads again: "'_He doesn't... Care._'" She frowns. "Oh. Sorry."

He shrugs.

She asks less personal questions when they get to the bus stop until the bus screeches up. He gets on and sits all the way in the back of the bus. She follows him like a shadow and sits next to him, in the aisle seat. She starts right from where she left off with questions and stories.

He wonders at one point why he doesn't get as annoyed as he thinks he should.

**!&!**

After getting off at the appropriate bus stop, he leads her and her never ending questions to his house. He gestures towards it and she glances at the house.

"This is your house?"

He nods.

"It's cute. I like it."

He rolls his eyes and walks up the driveway. His house was pretty shitty, actually. It just looked like a load of crap. He wasn't going to correct her though. Let her think what she wants.

He lets her in and she immediately takes a big inhale of the air in the house. Again, he rolls his eyes.

"Hm, smells like…. Chicken," she states and he nearly laughs, but he keeps himself together. "Is your mom home?"

He shakes his head.

"Is she at work?"

He nods.

"How about your step-dad?"

He shrugs.

"Okay. Where's your phone at?"

He points towards the kitchen, and leads her out of the living room and to the cluttered kitchen. There are papers and plates and cups everywhere. He doesn't care though. Ginny doesn't seem to mind either. In fact, she seems to be ignoring it all together.

He points to the phone and she smiles.

"Great, thanks. I'll just be a second." She picks up the phone and starts dialing.

Dwayne stands there for a second, then sighs and remembers all of his hospitality. He pulls out his notepad and writes while she puts the phone to her ear.

He hold the paper up that says: _Drink?_

She reads it, blinks, and whispers, "No, I'm good. Thanks though." She smiles and he puts the paper down.

She talks on the phone with her mother for a minute, Dwayne just standing there waiting for her to finish up. When Ginny finally hangs up the phone she sighs and smiles.

"Kay, all good. I have to be home by seven," she informs.

He nods.

"Where are we working at?"

He points to a hall and then leads her again. She follows, and he shows her his room. It's spotless compared to the rest of the house. He keeps his floor clean for when he's working out or doing anything. This is his space and he likes for his space to be nice and neat.

"Hm…. Your room I'm guessing?" she asks, walking into the room. She looks around and ignores his nod. "Very… you. Plain, but understandable. She looks at the picture he drew just a few weeks ago that now hangs on his wall. She stares at it, then turns to face him again. "Who?"

He goes over to his dresser and grabs the book that's lying on it. He holds it up and points to the author's name.

She reads the name for a few minutes, then attempts to say out loud: "_Frrrried-rich Nee-et-zzzz-cha_?" She looks at him, bewildered. "What?"

He nearly laughs, but again keeps composer as he pulls out his notepad and writes. He hands her the paper that now reads: _Freed-rik Nee-chuh_.

She stares at it, then mumbles the broken up syllables, her words stumbling. She says it again, a bit faster. Then faster and louder, then, she looks up and says, "_Friedrich Nietzsche?"_ She pronounces it perfectly.

He nods.

"Whew. So, this," she points to the drawing, "is _Friedrich Nietzsche_?"

He nods.

"Did you draw it?"

He nods.

"It's really good."

He gives her this weird half nod that she now recognizes as a "thank you".

"So, what's so great about this _Friedrich Nietzsche?_"

He holds the book back up.

She stares at it, then at him. "The book?"

He shoves it out farther.

"You want me to read it?"

He nods.

"Okay." She grabs it and stares at the cover. "Thanks."

He shrugs.

She looks up and smiles at him sweetly.

He turns away and looks at the portrait, remembering how hard it had been to draw on the sheet and not thinking of how Ginny's smile was actually kind of…. Pretty.

"So, ready to get started?"

He nods, not looking at her.

"Okay." She goes and sits on his bed, crossing her legs and grabbing her book bag.

He looks away from his drawing and grabs a chair from his desk, sitting in it backwards and in front of her.

"So, I think it would good to divide the work evenly."

He nods.

"I think we can both work on the food chain."

He nods.

"Then you can write the report, I'll help when needed."

He nods.

"And I'll do the demonstration, that way you don't have to talk."

He nods.

"You're very agreeable today."

He shrugs.

She lets out a big sigh. "I hate to be a paper waster, but you have to put in some input."

He sighs himself, and pulls out his notepad. He writes: _Fine. Good plan._

"You're good with writing the report?"

He nods.

"Okay, so when and where do you want to go find toys? I'm assuming since your sister's nine she still plays with hers?"

_I don't know_.

"When will she be home?"

_Depends._

"Hm…. Will she be home before I leave?"

_Probably._

"Okay, so we'll ask if there's any toy animals she wants to part with when she gets home, and if we need more we can hit a thrift store or something. Sound good?"

He nods.

"Good. Now, let's figure out what kind of animals we want in our food web. And _don't_ just shrug and agree with every animal I list. You'll have to name a few too."

He pauses and stares at her. She really wants him to be active in this project. She wouldn't just let him help build it and write the report, he was going to have to have _opinions_ and _ideas_ about this whole deal. Dammit.

"So, what animal do you want to be in the web?"

He sits for a minute, then writes: _Tiger._

She stares at the paper, blinks, then looks at Dwayne. "Tiger…. Alright. What kind?"

He quirks an eyebrow.

"Like, white or orange?"

He nods and writes: _Orange_.

"Okay, so regular old fashioned tiger." She scribbles that on a notebook she pulled out of her book bag at some point. "Hm… Now, what do tigers eat?"

_Anything._

She laughs, throwing her head back. "True, true."

And from there they work out appropriate animals that can go into the web. Ginny makes Dwayne give his thoughts often, and he actually gets into the project. He writes to her when he thinks she's wrong, and even cracks a smile by accident at one point. She doesn't make a big show of noticing though, she just smiles back.

They hear the door open and young girl scream: "_We're hooooooooome!_"

Dwayne cringes, and looks at Ginny. She smiles.

"Is that your sister?" she asks.

He nods.

"Can we go see her?"

He shrugs.

"I'll take that as a yes." She stands up and waits for him to rise as well. He takes his time, in no rush to introduce _anyone_ to his annoying family.

She takes her place as his shadow and follows him out the hallway and into the kitchen. She's walking closer to him this time though, and it makes the hairs on his arms stand up.

He first sees Olive dancing in the kitchen to some song on her walkman. He smiles smally, but quickly hides it. He walks over to his younger half-sister and, in the midst of her butt shaking, taps on her shoulder.

Olive jumps, turning around and tearing the clunky headphones from her ears. She smiles wide at him. "Hey Dwayne!"

He waves.

Olive's eyes drift over to the shadow hovering in the hallway. She smiles wide. "Is that your _girlfriend?_" she announces loudly.

Dwayne's cheeks set on fire. He shakes his head furiously and hears Ginny giggle behind him.

"Nope," she speaks up, and he senses her step closer to the siblings. "I'm just a friend. My names Ginny. You must be Olive." Her arm stretches out to Olive, who grabs it enthusiastically and shakes it.

"Yup! Hi!" She smiles widely.

"You're a very good dancer Olive," Ginny compliments, and Dwayne nearly rolls his eyes.

"Olive? Dwayne?" he hears the most annoying voice in the world say from the living room. Dwayne turns to look, but doesn't see his dreaded step-dad. "Is someone else here?" He finally steps into view, and Dwayne immediately feels a headache behind his left eyebrow. "Oh, hello there," he says to Ginny.

"Hello, you must be Mr. Hoover. I'm Ginny, Dwayne's friend from school." She reaches her hand out, and Richard shakes it with a weary look in his eyes.

"Mhm, nice to meet you. So, uh," he looks at Dwayne, who gives a subtle glare. "What have you guys been doing?"

Dwayne fully rolls his eyes. Seriously? Richard thinks Dwayne is stupid enough to do a girl when him and Olive were excepted to walk in at any minute? Stupid.

Ginny smiles. "We've been working on an project for school."

"Oh," he nods, but Dwayne knows Richard is still filled with suspicion. Whatever. "Uh, Mom will be home soon," he walks by the three kids. "Are you staying for dinner Ginny?"

Ginny glances at Dwayne while everyone else looks away. He didn't move, but tried to mentally tell her not to take the risk. She stares and him and gives a small smile. "No thank you sir, my parents are excepting me home for dinner."

Dwayne inwardly sighs relief.

"Oh, well, that's, uh," Richard looks walks into the kitchen and checks the phone messages. He doesn't complete his terribly fragmented sentence.

Ginny glances Dwayne with a curious glimmer in her different eyes. He senses that she's unsure of how to respond to Richard. Too bad he doesn't know either. He takes his notepad out its pocketed home and its accompanying pen.

After he shows her the paper, he watches her thin lips mouth the word _toys_ and then stare at the paper with her usual blinking eyes. She seems to be wondering what he's referring to, but when she figures it out, her eyes brighten and she looks at him with a smile.

"Right, I forgot," she tells him before looking to Olive. "Hey, Olive?"

"Yeah Ginny?" Olive asks excitedly, her blue eyes wide.

"Me and Dwayne are doing this project for school and we need some toys of some animals. Do you have any you don't play with anymore that we can have?" Her voice is that typical "talking-to-a-person-smaller-than-me" voice, all higher than usual and polite and somewhat sarcastic.

Olive looks deeply into her thoughts. She's looking at the ceiling and sticking her tongue out and scratching her head; very serious thinking. "I might," she finally says.

"We really need these ones." Ginny pulls out the paper with her handwrote list of the web of her skirt pocket.

Dwayne quirks an eyebrow, he hadn't seen her put the paper there…. Not that he had been watching her or anything. Well, he had, but not in the creepy way. Obviously not intent enough for him to see her put the paper in her pocket. He had been watching her though. Okay, watching is a bad verb…. Hm, looking. Yeah, he had been _looking _her, sure. Not in a creepy way though.

Wait, what?

"Dwayne?"

He looks at Ginny and he's sure he looks confused.

"You wanna go back to your room?" she asks in a tone that tells him she's probably repeating this question.

He mentally shakes his head out of whatever it just went into and nods to the blonde. She fades back into his shadow and follows to his room. He closes the door when they enter and he hears her sigh in relief. He turns with his left eyebrow cocked, quietly questioning her.

She shakes her head. "Your step-dad's kind of…." She stops, obviously trying to find an appropriate adjective.

He writes: _an ass._

After blinking her eyes, she laughs. "Well, that's a bit different then what I was thinking, but it'll work."

He smiles slightly and quickly looks away.

Silence. First time since after biology. Weird silence though. Like they both aren't thinking or anything, they're just standing there. She wants to say something, he's sure, but he wants to make sure he says nothing. Whoa, what?

"DWAYNE AND GINNY!" is shrieked moments later. Ginny jumps nearly off the ground, but Dwayne keeps his composer and simply looks at the door. Olive bursts in seconds later a small smile on her face. "HI!" She sings. "I found a toy I don't want!"

"Oh," Ginny quickly goes back into "dealing-with-a-small-child" mode and kneels down. "That's great Olive. What is it?"

"Here!" Olive holds out her palm straight up and drops small, plastic tiger toy with a missing leg and chewed on tail.

Dwayne stares at the toy with no emotion, as per usual, on his face. He glances at Ginny, who hasn't lost her smile at all. What was she still smiling about? They couldn't use that toy.

"Thank you Olive!" She smiles and the young girl and grabs the broken piece of painted plastic. "Can I have our list back too please?"

"Sure!" She hands Ginny the (now crumbled) piece of paper. "BYE!"

Dwayne stares after his little sister until she slams the door shut. He stares at the white door, then looks down at Ginny. She staring at him smiling.

She holds her hand out, showing the piece of crap his sister gave, and then says, "Looks like we'll have to go shopping."


End file.
